the lonely hearts club || n.h au

one

Niall always looks forward to his night off.

He likes working at Copper & Compass — a pub owned by his uncle. Standing behind the bar, serving people drinks while they unwind and put their stress of the day or week aside. Occasionally he would even listen to these people talk to him, confiding in him, because they know their confession would remain safe with him. He knows so many secrets. Secrets that aren't his to tell.

Being a bartender feels awfully similar to therapists, he thinks. Except, instead of giving out advice, he gives them booze.

It's not an ideal job, if he has to be completely honest — he would never admit that to a single soul, though. But it pays. And there are some pros to working with an uncle who's barely around. And who trusts him with nearly everything related to said pub. So, all things considered, it's not so bad .

Still, he looks forward to his night off. Because that's when he gets to unwind. When he's the one who gets to sit back and drink.

But at the rate his friends are going, he doesn't think he'll get to unwind. Not while he's still here and not while Fionn, Brody and Connor are getting worked up over a fucking board game.

"Horan, back me up on this," Connor says, snapping Niall out of his thoughts.

Niall stopped listening to them when they started bickering over stupid things about the game. He's too busy thinking about why he decided to torture himself and spend his only night off this week playing board game with his mates when he could be doing anything else but this. But now that one of his mates has called out his name, he's forced to refocus on the game and this stupid argument they're on.

Niall raises an eyebrow at his friend. "What?"

"Just 'cause I'm fucking phenomenal at this game that doesn't mean I'm cheating," Connor seethes when he said the word cheating. If there's one word that he hates so much, that's the word. "Right?"

Niall hesitates. Connor's track record doesn't exactly reflect that. He's been known to cheat when they play cards because he values winning over his integrity, so Niall isn't sure if it's any different this time. But Connor is one of his oldest friends and there's got to be a rule that says you have to always have your oldest friend's back, right?

"Murphy, just admit it," Fionn chimes in before Niall gets to answer, saving him without knowing. He prefers to avoid confrontations at all costs. "You're cheating. You're shite at everything so no way you're good at this."

"Yeah, it's obvious you're cheating, mate," Brody says with a shake of his head. "You're as good as my Nan so I'm not buying this."

"No way," Connor shakes his head, annoyance written all over his face, turning it red. His face always turns red when he feels things, Niall notices. It turns red when he's angry, it turns red when he's embarrassed and it turns red when he's happy. It's both a blessing and a curse, Niall thinks, that Connor's face pretty much gives away what he's feeling.

"Brody, give your Nan more credit. She's better than Connor," Fionn argues, deliberately saying it to rile their friend up. Niall takes a look at Connor. Yeah, his red face tells him that it's working. "She could destroy us all without cheating."

"Fuck all of you," Connor says before he gets up and then, mutters, "I'm gonna get some drinks."

As soon as he disappears into the kitchen, Fionn says, "Yeah, he fucking cheated."

"We broke him," Brody adds, laughing when he hears an unmistakable 'fuck you!' coming from the kitchen.

"Horan, you're quiet," Fionn points out once the laughter has died down. "You alright?"